A new WNBA season tips off on Friday, May 8, as the league celebrates its 30th season and welcomes two expansion teams in the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.
After a new collective bargaining agreement was reached, a two-team expansion draft, a whirlwind free agency period and WNBA prospect draft that at points were happening at the same time, the dust has settled for now.
With 12-player rosters bring finalized on Thursday, now is the time to assess what each team has assembled and how things might shake out this season. Which teams have set themselves up for success in 2026 and which teams will have a lot to prove?
Our WNBA experts Jackie Powell and Cole Huff have split up each of the league’s teams, including the two new expansion franchises, and explored a big picture question for each in alphabetical order. What could define the fate of each franchise heading into the 2026 WNBA season? That’s what we aim to explore below.
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Atlanta Dream: How much of a leap will Angel Reese take playing for Karl Smesko?
To win in the WNBA, teams need versatile bigs that can balance out perimeter shooting and anchor defenses. The Dream always had the shooting in Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, but have struggled to find a versatile big to allow those perimeter players more space. Which brings us to Reese, who during her second and final year in Chicago emerged as a point forward in addition to being a double-double machine.
The glaring issues for Reese when she played for the Sky were her efficiency and field goal percentage. She averaged just 42 percent from the field in two seasons despite most of her shots coming in the restricted area. Also, her lack of shooting prowess from beyond the arc doesn’t help to achieve advantageous spacing. Will playing in head coach Karl Smesko’s system, in addition to extra focus on refining her shot, move Reese into a position where she’s closer to the level of an A’ja Wilson or Breanna Stewart? Smesko’s work with the Dream’s Naz Hillmon helped earn her not only Sixth Player of the Year in 2025, but turned her into a reliable stretch big. – Jackie Powell
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Chicago Sky: What will Natasha Cloud and Skylar Diggins’ on-court fit look like?
After a long and uncertain saga surrounding point guard Natasha Cloud, she’s finally been signed to a WNBA team, but it’s not exactly clear how her skills and those of her teammates on the Sky will complement each other. Cloud joins a roster with two other pass-first point guards in Skylar Diggins and Courtney Vandersloot. Before Cloud was signed, there were questions about how Vandersloot and Diggins — two guards whose career average shooting from three are both below 35 percent — could play together in a starting backcourt.
During training camp Vandersloot alluded to the idea that she and Diggins would share the floor for presumably starters’ minutes. And while Vandersloot won’t start the season on time due to continued rehab from her torn ACL, does this mean Cloud just slides right into her spot? Cloud is just like Vandersloot and Diggins — she, too, has a career three-point average below 35 percent at 31.3.
This doesn’t solve the Sky’s problem when it comes to spacing and off-ball play in their backcourt. Unless both Cloud and Diggins buy into cutting off the basketball, or one of them agrees to come off the bench, it’s hard to see these pieces coming together smoothly. – Jackie Powell
Connecticut Sun: What is the Sun’s plan for Hailey Van Lith?
To make room for Natasha Cloud, Chicago had to waive their 2025 No. 11 overall pick Hailey Van Lith. And just a couple of days later, the Sun announced that they picked the second-year player up off waivers.
When dissecting the Sun’s roster, there is a surplus of switchable wings that can play minutes at the one, the two, and all the way to the four. But these wings aren’t necessarily shot-creating specialists. These players can mostly shoot, pass and defend. The Sun’s offensive creators prior to bringing over Van Lith came in the frontcourt from Brittney Griner, Annesah Morrow, and Aaliyah Edwards. Is the idea that Van Lith balances out where the Sun can create some offense from?
That’s how I rationalize it. But also this could be more about the franchise taking a flyer on as many young players as it can so it can figure out who they want coming with them when they move to Houston next season. – Cole Huff
Dallas Wings: Will the Wings deploy a three-guard starting lineup?
Despite not seeing the Wings at full strength during the preseason, there’s a belief that the 2026 first-overall pick Azzi Fudd will likely join Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers in Dallas’ opening unit to begin the season. A three-guard lineup isn’t necessarily unheard of in the W. During their back-to-back championship runs, the Aces reached the mountaintop with Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, and Kelsey Plum starting together. Even more recently, Atlanta had one of the WNBA’s best offenses and defenses a season ago while often starting games with a backcourt of Jordin Canada, Rhyne Howard, and Allisha Gray. Having multiple facilitators and shot creators on the floor at one time theoretically unlocks offenses to play a more versatile brand, one that forces defenses to react to and defend several actions within a possession, something the Wings could be looking to explore with their potential three-guard starting unit.
The distribution of workload and minutes could pose a challenge for first-year head coach Jose Fernandez, albeit a welcome one. Regardless, Dallas will ultimately have plenty of talent at its disposal, especially following a string of high-quality free-agent acquisitions. Whether it was taking Jessica Shepard and Alanna Smith from the Lynx to add to their frontcourt or adding veteran bench depth in Odyssey Sims and Alysha Clark, Fernandez will have a variety of cards to pull from his deck depending on the situation. Dallas should be vastly improved this season with the three-guard trio potentially headlining the success. – Cole Huff
Golden State Valkyries: Will the Valkyries continue the momentum from the inaugural season?
History has traditionally not been kind to expansion teams. Regardless of what would later become — specifically, the Minnesota Lynx, Detroit Shock, and Seattle Storm, all of which won multiple WNBA championships — their inaugural seasons did not yield great success. In fact, no expansion team had ever made the playoffs in Year 1; that, of course, was until head coach Natalie Nakase led the Golden State Valkyries to the postseason last year.
Year One success doesn’t, however, guarantee Year Two success, and the Valkyries know that. Headlined by 2025 Most Improved Player Award winner Veronica Burton, Golden State brought back its entire starting five from the season-ending playoff loss to the Minnesota Lynx, retained their lone 2025 WNBA All-star, Kayla Thornton, and added veterans Kiah Stokes and Gabby Williams in free agency, with Williams being one of the premier defensive wings the league has to offer. Their continuity, combined with offseason additions, projects a clear talent upgrade. Now, they’ll need to put all the pieces together and build off what was an impressive first year for the franchise. – Cole Huff
Indiana Fever: How will the Fever address their defense in the backcourt?
There has been a ton of hoopla when it comes to the idea of the Fever wanting to get Caitlin Clark minutes off the ball. The reason for it is two-fold. One reason is what head coach Stephanie White explained. “It’s just a way to help her load management,” she said. “It’s a way to help alleviate some of the extra stuff that’s put on her shoulders throughout the course of a game.”
But the other reason is because the Fever are sacrificing defensively when both Clark and Kelsey Mitchell share the backcourt. There is a theory that by having Aliyah Boston protecting the rim, some of these troubles will be alleviated. But as we saw with the New York Liberty in both 2023 and 2024, it’s difficult to contend when two guards on the floor struggle consistently to defend the basketball.
New additions rookie Raven Johnson and Ty Harris both defend exceptionally. The question will be how exactly do these permutations that feature Clark, Mitchell, Harris and Johnson make sure that the Fever aren’t sacrificing too much on either end of the floor. Is this the case of Mitchell and Clark starting games together but not finishing them together? It’s going to be really tough for White to navigate. – Jackie Powell
Las Vegas Aces: Can this Aces core repeat again?
We all know the faces at this point. The A’ja Wilson-Chelsea Gray-Jackie Young trio is one that’s been intact for five seasons already, with head coach Becky Hammon at the helm for four. Together, they’re proven winners and some of the highest regarded in their profession, namely Wilson, a four-time league MVP, and Hammon, with three WNBA championships in four years as a head coach. Throw in the fact that the key complementary pieces, NaLyssa Smith, Dana Evans, Jewell Loyd, Kierstan Bell, and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus are back, and you get a veteran squad that has the chance of building off a uniquely hot final two-and-a-half months of the season.
But with contenders such as the New York Liberty and Atlanta Dream seemingly improving their rosters this offseason in hopes of dethroning the champs, can these Aces continue to play like the post-All-Star Break team of 2025 rather than the one that went .500 and struggled in the lead-up? Perhaps the added depth of Chennedy Carter, Stephanie Talbot, and Brianna Turner makes the difference on a game-by-game basis. – Cole Huff
Los Angeles Sparks: Will the Sparks end their playoff drought?
As one of the five active franchises with multiple WNBA championships, simply making the playoffs should be the bare minimum for the Sparks, especially when considering four of their projected starters have each won a WNBA championship and combine for six altogether. Yet, the reality is Los Angeles hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2020 season — at that time, Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby were part of a young and unproven Las Vegas Aces team, Ariel Atkins was in just her second WNBA season, and Nneka Ogwumike was nearing the latter part of her first tenure with the Sparks. Today, the Plum-Hamby duo has become one of the most respected in the league, the now-veteran Atkins has a chance to compete on a contending team for the first time in years, and Ogwumike is back for her second stint in hopes of bringing a title back to Los Angeles.
The departure of Rickea Jackson this offseason via trade leaves Rae Burrell and Cameron Brink as the only two projected rotation players with fewer than 100 games of WNBA experience. Clearly in win-now mode, can this veteran group of players get back to the playoffs and, even better, make some noise in the postseason? – Cole Huff
Minnesota Lynx: Can this Lynx team hold down the fort until Napheesa returns?
There were plenty of obstacles for the Lynx to maneuver en route to their league-best 34-10 record during the 2025 season. One of the most notable was the need to win games without their MVP candidate, Napheesa Collier, who missed 11 games altogether. They did exactly that, tallying more victories than defeats during her absence, including a notable 5-2 late-season stretch a few weeks before the start of the postseason.
But that was last season; a season in which a group of veterans, with continuity, rallied together behind the elite coaching of Cheryl Reeve to form the WNBA’s best overall record. However, that core of reliable veterans is gone; the Lynx are a new squad entering 2026. Jessica Shepard, Bridget Carleton, Alanna Smith, Natisha Hiedeman, and DiJonai Carrington — five of Minnesota’s top-8 minutes-per-game leaders — are all on new teams. And with Collier out of action until at least early June in her recovery from offseason ankle surgery, what is a realistic expectation for the suddenly unfamiliar Lynx? They’ll have to dig deep, but if there’s any coach who can accept the challenge and rise to the occasion, it’s Cheryl Reeve, arguably the greatest coach the WNBA has seen. – Cole Huff
New York Liberty: Will the Liberty be able to fully unlock their depth?
Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb built another Noah’s Ark type roster where the depth on paper functions as safety valves for when injury strikes. New head coach Chris DeMarco will be tested early about how he uses and unlocks his roster’s depth especially since Sabrina Ionescu will miss at least two weeks after rolling her left ankle in a preseason game against the Connecticut Sun.
Marine Johannès, who wasn’t always trusted to do more than shoot by former head coach Sandy Brondello, will be thrown into the fire a bit more alongside new rookie French point guard Pauline Astier, who proved her skill and WNBA-readiness in the Liberty’s final preseason game scoring 12 points and dishing out four assists in 22 minutes off the bench.
Also, when Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera come to the WNBA after playing their overseas seasons in Spain, it will be up to DeMarco to figure out how those two pieces fit. And then there’s 6’11” Han Xu who looks like a different player since she was last in the WNBA three seasons ago. “So we want to play eight, 9,10, 11 players,” DeMarco said when asked about the bench. “I do find that if you have weapons off the bench like that alleviates some of that pressure for your starters, you want to get to that early.” – Jackie Powell
Phoenix Mercury: How will the Mercury replace Satou Sabally’s production?
The 2025 Mercury, essentially a team of entirely new players, overcame injuries, saw several rookies emerge into important rotation players, and rode the sensation of an expectation-exceeding regular season into a Finals appearance. And while they were one of the league’s best stories, some of their success could have been forecasted, given their stout Big 3 of Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper, and Satou Sabally. The latter now calls Brooklyn home, becoming the latest Sabally to represent the Liberty. So the question is: how do the Mercury fill the void of a departed leading scorer who played a massive role in helping the team reach the Finals?
They didn’t add any marquee scorers during the free agency period and didn’t hold the draft position to select an expected difference-maker in terms of scoring. Perhaps DeWanna Bonner steps into a larger role and turns back the clock a bit after an up-and-down 2025 campaign. Or maybe Monique Akoa Makani takes a leap in development during Year 2. Nonetheless, how far the Mercury go likely depends on the level of play Thomas displays. And based on what she, an MVP finalist, proved a season ago, there’s no reason to believe she isn’t capable of carrying Phoenix once more. – Cole Huff
Portland Fire: Can the Fire become the latest expansion team to have Year 1 success?
As mentioned previously, the Valkyries bucked the trend last season by becoming the first-ever expansion team to make the playoffs in their inaugural season. While their playoff stay was brief, the accomplishment alone has made Year 1 success less of an afterthought than before. It’s now Portland’s turn to try its luck — technically, its second turn.
The Fire’s original WNBA debut came in 2000, where they tallied a 10-22 record and a seventh-place finish in the Western Conference. Their time as a franchise was short-lived as they folded after just three seasons. But they have a chance at redemption 24 years later. It’s unclear which players will earn the heaviest workload or emerge as the franchise’s faces in Year One — my guesses: Bridget Carleton and Carla Leite. We’ll soon find out. Regardless, the Fire will have big shoes to fill if trying to chase the success of the Valkyries. – Cole Huff
Seattle Storm: What does the Storm’s frontcourt rotation look like?
The Storm paid their veteran, Ezi Magbegor, this offseason. They drafted Dominique Molonga last season with the second-overall pick. And one year later, Seattle selected Awa Fam with the third pick in the WNBA Draft. That’s likely some iteration of 6’4”, 6’6”, and 6’4” on the floor at all times. We saw a similar situation play out a season ago in the Pacific Northwest with the aforementioned Malonga, Magbegor, and a slightly shorter 6’2” Nneka Ogwumike.
Then-head coach Noelle Quinn had the nightly task of managing the three frontcourt players’ minutes, ultimately opting to start the veterans in all 44 regular-season games while keeping the rookie Malonga firmly as the first center off the bench. Should we expect a similar approach in 2026 under first-year head coach Sonia Raman, bringing Fam along slowly off the bench to learn behind the more experienced bigs? It’ll be interesting to see how the minutes in that frontcourt rotation unfold throughout the season. – Cole Huff
Toronto Tempo: Will Sandy Brondello continue her playoff streak?
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello has never missed the playoffs in her 13 seasons as a head coach in the WNBA. It says a lot about her: 1) She knows how to win games regardless of the roster she’s given and 2) She understands expectations. When I asked her about what the goals for the team are, she was honest about the Tempo’s situation as an expansion team. “I think we’re realistic with our expectations, but knowing, why not? If we can push to a playoff spot,” she said.
I compare this Tempo team to the 2022 New York Liberty which was a team that had some star power but wasn’t quite a roster yet built to contend. That Brondello-coached team needed to prove it was trending upward so that the most talented players in the league would be drawn to play there. That’s Toronto’s goal in year one. And they will try to do so with a dynamic backcourt that features Marina Mabrey, Brittney Sykes, and No. 6 overall draft pick KiKi Rice. – Jackie Powell
Washington Mystics: How many three-pointers will the Mystics take and make?
I could be beating a dead horse at this point, but where are the Mystics going to find space on the floor? How are they going to keep up with the rest of the league as the WNBA is well into its own chapter of basketball defined by pace and space? To be clear, the pace I see for the young Mystics, especially since they are once again the youngest team in the league and the second-youngest team in WNBA history. But the space part of the equation is a whole different story.
“I think there’s going to be an incremental boost there that I think that people may be underestimating,” head coach Sydney Johnson said about his team’s three-point shooting this season. “And at the end of the day, we’re, we’re kind of a key-in-three team.”
That focus on driving and kicking might get the Mystics taking more threes this season than last, but I still continue to question how a roster with no more than three players who have shot over 35 percent from deep are going to be a well-spaced team. – Jackie Powell
